COLLEGE FOOTBALL

COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Miami Loses Its Ground Soldier

By MALCOLM MORAN

Published: November 26, 1991

The family and friends that had driven up from Brooklyn were all around Stephen McGuire, just as they had planned. They were outside Alumni Stadium at Boston College late Saturday night after Miami's costly 10th victory did not go at all as they had hoped.

McGuire was forced to greet the friendly faces with off-balance kisses or awkward handshakes because of the crutches he was compelled to lean on. A teen-age boy approached, studied the outline of a brace bulging beneath the left leg of McGuire's gray sweatpants and frowned.

"What happened?" he said.

"I tore my knee up," McGuire said.

Hours after the team's return to Florida Sunday morning came the confirmation of the worst fears: McGuire would need surgery.

Yesterday, he underwent an operation to repair ligament damage. Dr. John Uribe, who performed the surgery at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Fla., said he was optimistic about McGuire's recovery.

Dennis Erickson, the Miami coach, was not given a timetable for McGuire's return next season. But when the helmet of Boston College cornerback Jay Clark smashed against McGuire's knee, the fullback from Andrew Jackson High School in Queens quickly realized his 1991 season was over.

McGuire had gained 49 yards on 6 carries over the first 10 minutes 40 seconds of the game, including 34 yards on the first Miami touchdown drive. His season total of 608 yards is 40 percent of Miami's rushing yardage. The Hurricanes averaged 155 rushing yards in their first nine games; they gained 69 on Saturday aside from McGuire's yardage.

The importance of Miami's leading rusher was obvious a week before, when McGuire ran for 142 yards in the 17-16 victory at Florida State. But his role in Miami's delicate offensive balance was just as evident in McGuire's absence.

Miami converted just 4 of 16 third-down opportunities after McGuire left the field, and not one of the 4 successful plays was a run. Five of the situations required just a yard to continue a drive, and only one of those third-and-1 plays was turned into a first down.

The Hurricanes did convert three fourth-down plays, two by Martin Patton and one by Larry Jones. But without McGuire, Miami had been forced into potentially costly gambles against a Boston College team with a 4-7 record. Miami, in a suddenly closer competition for an unofficial national championship as it prepares for its game against San Diego State this weekend, had revealed a glaring inconsistency in short-yardage situations. A Quiet Athlete

For all of the attention given to the tradition of Miami's passing game, the quiet fullback who appeared for his recruiting visit wearing the prep-school military uniform of Fork Union Military Academy had become an essential part of the offense.

"There are two types of tacklers," Micheal Barrow, a linebacker, said in a subdued Miami dressing room. "There are road-stoppers, guys who want to hit you face-to-face." Barrow smacked his right fist into his left palm to emphasize his point.

"And there are hitchhikers," he said, "the guys that like you to go by and jump on your back. I saw a lot of hitchhikers with Steve at Florida State."

McGuire had been able to walk off the field with a minimal amount of help, but that turned out to be misleading. After the game, as he leaned on his crutches, a fan wearing a Miami cap approached McGuire's quiet group and suddenly started cheering.

And so the group carried on with its smiles the way people do when they are brought together under suddenly bad circumstances. McGuire had not been able to see her son's injury from her seat. "All I knew was he was down and he wasn't getting up," she remembered.

But instead of worrying at home while her son lay injured on the floor of Alumni Stadium, Mrs. McGuire was able to go to the dressing room, learn the facts and stay with him.

Of course, she was unhappy when he first began to play. "I didn't like the sport," she said. "I just didn't like it."

She didn't like the game because of scenes just like this, her son balancing himself on crutches just to say hello. Soon there would be surgery, hundreds of miles from home.

"I'll have to miss a couple of classes," McGuire said. The fullback and his mother both laughed, but the look in the mother's eyes indicated that this part of the conversation was not over.

Photo: Stephen McGuire of the University of Miami being wheeled off the field after taking a hit to the knee by Boston College's Jay Clark Saturday. (Associated Press)